Just yesterday, the BuddyPress core team gave a massive update to the BuddyPress Codex, making it easier than ever to learn how to use the #1 social networking platform plugin for WordPress.

Even though the new BuddyPress Codex may function like a traditional Wiki, it’s actually built on top of WordPress and BuddyPress. After all, why not show off some of the cool things you can do with a platform while you learn how to use it?

Some highlights of this release include a new installation and update wizard, a new profile manager, integration with WordPress navigation menus, and a greatly improved default theme.

Before upgrading, you may want to stop by this handy guide for some tips as well as plugin and theme compatibility reports. This release has been well tested over a few beta releases and release candidates, but if you run into any trouble, please feel free to contact the BuddyPress support forums.

Though the developers have not exactly cleared this release for use on live sites yet, now is the time to test it out if you’re handy with discovering bugs, and there’s even a test installation available for you to get your hands dirty with.

Considering the amount of bug fixes, the plan to release the final at the end of this month, and the overall speed of the development releases, plugin and theme developers should definitely start testing their products against the BuddyPress 1.5 betas as soon as possible.

Previous users of the BuddyPress Template Pack will be happy to know that the plugin has been upgraded and is now fully compatible with the latest stable release of BuddyPress.

Have you used the BuddyPress Template Pack? Was exactly what you had hoped it to be, or would you recommend any similar plugins or services?

Before upgrading your BuddyPress installation, make sure to back up your data and files, and deactivate BuddyPress-dependent plugins.

Congrats to Boone Gorges and the rest of the contributors for continuing to develop and support the BuddyPress project.

Now that Paul Gibbs and Boone Gorges have joined the team, the next major release is on track for the end of 2010.

BuddyPress has been rapidly building its user base since 1.0 was released in April of 2009. Have you built something with BuddyPress? If so, we’d love to hear about it!

I have always been of the opinion that this blog, its content, its collection of authors and most of all, its community of readers, is a prime candidate for BuddyPress. Having a common signup between comments, ratings, forums and blog posts would be a fantastic feature. This news is the first step in making those features a reality. We will start working on our test version of this blog very soon.

Are you thinking about trying BuddyPress? What is your greatest concern in adding BuddyPress to your blog? What is the greatest benefit?

Speaking of our WLTC Community, we are up to 68 users who are actively making friends, posting on their blogs and writing up forum topics. I can’t say this often enough, but BuddyPress and WordPress have amazed me once more. It was relatively simple to set up (barring the voodoo nonce bug and the mismatched installation documentation/plugins due to version differences), it was a breeze.

Not only is the back end software cool, the front end is pretty darn easy to use and can be addictive. If you don’t believe me, just register on our Weblog Tools Collection Community and take it for a spin. I am very active there and have tried to encourage people to start participating, sharing and asking. We hope to make it as valuable of a resource as possible and even have plans for some custom development of our own (ok, we already have custom development, we just need to release our work).

So without further ado, especially if you want to play around with BuddyPress, please head over to the shiny new WLTC Community and register for either a username or a blog. I hope to meet you there!